New Photos!

These are photos emailed to me from moments earlier in my trip - Loading up on my third day, preparing to take on Kennebec Pass to Indian Trail.  Carin, from Sweden took these photos.  Because of her interest, I met Chris, from Durango.  He was her "sherpa guide" on the Colorado trail and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Chris and his group again later in the Weiminuche Wilderness with his crew and clients hiking the Colorado trail.  Chris invited me to dinner (wow what food!) and I enjoyed two days in rain and hailstorms in the shelter of his wall tent at Carson Saddle.  When the weather cleared, we all moved on, but I'll never forget the wonderful people and conversations, and the warm hospitality offered by Chris and crew.  For those of you thinking about hiking the CO trail without a heavy backpack - Chris offers a deluxe sherpa/guide service and awesome food.

I'm still in Salida.  Sue's riding guests cancelled today, so she was free and offered to take me to Buena Vista.  She wanted to provide me with a "Spot" device, which is a GPS tracker that sends my location coordinates to designated persons.  I'm going to try to figure out a way to get that to post to this blog so you can all see where I am on any given day.  Not sure if it's possible - might have to be a link from my website.  It's a pretty cool little device.  If I get in trouble, I can either press the "help" button, or the "911" button.  It comes with a reasonable price tag and subscription fee, so if I get in an ugly situation, helicopters will be discharged to the rescue - anywhere in the world.  The amazing thing?  911 Rescue is provided when needed for a fee of $7.95 a year.  The subscription is $99.00 a year.  Pretty cool device, and reassuring for my loved ones.

With this change in plans, I'll be back on the trail tomorrow.  Gives me time to reshoe Maggie this afternoon, and get an early start tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to being back on the trail again, although it has been VERY comfortable at Granite Mountain Outfitters.  Don cooked big ribeye steaks over the fire last night, and we shared corn on the cob and a few drinks with Tom Paul and his lovely girlfriend Sarah, soon to be graduating from law school.  Tom Paul just finished a trek down the Baha and elsewhere (I think he mentioned he had traveled 6,000 miles?) and gave me a nice map of Mexico for my route planning.  Thanks buddy!  Carol (Don's girlfriend), was a most gracious hostess - putting up with Wiley laying in the middle of her kitchen floor during the whole evening. 

It's been a wonderful stay at Poncha Pass with Sue and crew.  Thanks to everyone over and over again.  This is exactly the kind of wonderful time I was hoping to have on my journeys.  Thanks for helping to make my dreams come true!